Why have we got a celebrity culture?

I guess its because there's a market for people who are famous for being famous.

Its all about being able to make the right noises, getting noticed.

Once on Kilroy (remember him?) He had Lulu on as a guest and the subject was about fame.

The studio was full of fame wanabe's. And one of them declared that they just wanted to be famous. Lulu asked famous for what, and the reply was don't know, doesn't matter. When she pressed further, the wannabe pointed out that she (Lulu) was famous, how did she do that?

Lulu said that she wanted to be a singer, that she wanted to be a good one and that the fame was just a by-product. She didn't set out to be famous.

I think that concept was beyond most of the guests. Being famous for being a prat was good enough. Though I did think the girl (took 10,000 attempts by the TV production company) who was delirious at appearing as a client at a clinic for STD's was being hopeful. 

Clap stars.

The idea that we recently switched to enjoying the more prurient elements of fame over the creme de la creme of sports and art is a bit revisionist. If anything, 'celebrity culture' is an interesting human-specific development in that we can externalise and recognise difference without the herd killing it (most of the time). Those who populate BBC3 and C4 reality shows are just the C21 version of lepers, vagrants, carnival types, medicine shows, travelling snake oil salesmen, freaks in the freakshow, local eccentrics; to be discussed and reduced to two dimensions. There's also an economic argument to be made, though as it is tedious, I shall leave it on the shelf.

if it's something that bothers you, it really is possible ujst to zone out of the majority of media fluff.

I don't think that you can tune it out; there is always a 'celebrity', a thing that you know that doesn't know you that you view in a certain subjective manner. It could be a revered obscure fell runner or it could be a guest on Jeremy Kyle who ticked all of your prejudice boxes.

my point is that you can choose to a large degree how you are going to let it affect you. i don't go looking for z list slebs in the papers, or for telly shows that feature them, and if i come across them, i tend to gloss over them, as they don't interest me on the whole, unless their celebrity comes as a result of excelling at something that does interest me.

so my attention is drawn away from, and not towards z list slebs, and some of where i focus my attention is within my control, or under my influence.

Listening to many of the people I work with, I think celebrity culture has grown to fill a gap in people's lives.  Nobody that I work with seems to have a hobby other than following crap tv and soaps.

I think if people are genuinely entertained in a Pavlovian sense by Celebrity Big Brother or X Factor then that's for them and not for me or, I suspect, many of us. We're all filling gaps in our life, show me the entirely fulfilled person and I will show you a liar or a delusional. 

Hate to appear like an apologist for society's ne'er do wells but when people criticise people for liking 'inane' celebrities they're generally usually insulting someone closer to home without realising it.

You are right that we all have gaps to fill and we all chose different ways of doing it.  I'm sure there are some people who need what I consider to be mindless drivel in their lives.

I don't have tv and I generally avoid the papers, except occassionally browsing through one that is left lying around in the coffee room at work.  I have no idea who most of these celebrities are.  Maybe I'm the one missing out on something.

sevendaughters wrote (see)

I don't think that you can tune it out; there is always a 'celebrity', a thing that you know that doesn't know you that you view in a certain subjective manner. It could be a revered obscure fell runner or it could be a guest on Jeremy Kyle who ticked all of your prejudice boxes.

I was once in a shop a decade ago and had one of those moments.

I told the subject when they expressed surprise at being recognised that it was a mark of fame when someone they didn't know , knew who they were.

Mo Farah is a little more famous these days.

RicF wrote (see)

sevendaughters wrote (see)

I don't think that you can tune it out; there is always a 'celebrity', a thing that you know that doesn't know you that you view in a certain subjective manner. It could be a revered obscure fell runner or it could be a guest on Jeremy Kyle who ticked all of your prejudice boxes.

I was once in a shop a decade ago and had one of those moments.

I told the subject when they expressed surprise at being recognised that it was a mark of fame when someone they didn't know , knew who they were.

Mo Farah is a little more famous these days.

Heh!

We have a celebrity culture because there are an extreme number of TV broadcasting hours, radio broadcasting hours, pages of newspapers and magazines, etc, that need to be filled - which requires material to fill them.

The media identify personalities who are becoming well known for one reason or another, and then build them up to suit their own needs.

We get to hear about the lives and activities of the "personalities" whether we want to or not.

The Bobcat Goldthwait film 'God Bless America' has a funny, albiet dark take on this.  It will make you despise the people that talk about Xfactor and other such crap on your lunch break at work even more. 

Stop watching reality TV and go for a run... you know who you are! (:

Media - Always been gossip etc but most people were famous in their own locality.

With National Media, TV channels (many devoted to rubbish) and the Internet, people become known much wider. The Village idiot is now the Global Village idiot, although it is interesting that the village is usually in Essex.....

I often watch the opening episode of  Big Brother, dancing on ice etc just to make sure that I don't know any of the 'celebrities'. The fact I don't know them is a source of comfort to me. The day I know them all is the day I will seek professional help for having gone mad and started watching and reading rubbish

It's a conspiracy to take our minds off the daily oppression that is capitalism. There. I said it.

Not to mention a little shit like his wife.